Can You Create Cool Green Household Objects That Cost Just One Dollar?

When I gaze into my recycling bin, I rarely see anything all that design-worthy, but students attending New York City's Pratt Institute are trained to see the beauty inherant in everyday objects.

That experience came in handy for this year's ICFF Design Schools' Exhibition which challenged young, artistic minds to devise creative objects made out of just one dollar's worth of materials.

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After viewing the following design creations, I'd like to know if people in the Greenwala community think that they can rise to the challenge and create their own unique dollar objects...

If so, I think that you owe it to your green-lovin' peeps to post photos and descriptions of your creations in this discussion group!!

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Okay, so maybe Martha Stewart came up with this idea back in the early 90s, but it's one of those oldies but goodies that bears repeating. 

Pratt student David Steinvurzel poured 20 cents worth of soy wax into empty orange peels and voila -- he created his Orange Votive Candle, which is definitely aesthetically pleasing, cheap and quite possibly as eco-friendly as it gets.

Hard to believe that this was once an assortment of brown paper shopping bags. Rebecca Marshall's Paper Bailout Bag transformed crumpled, oiled and heat pressed brown paper into a waterproof, leather-like handbag with clever design and sewing skills. She then reinforced her creation with newspaper for durability, accented it with strips of a 40 cent silk handkerchief and newsprint, and then lined it with paper towels.

Jennie Maeri's Crysal Chandelier, made by forming white pipe cleaners into three intricately designed orbs, is stunning enough to look at...but up close, you begin to realize that her pipe cleaners are actually encrusted with salt Borax crystals that are clinging to the bristles.  Just don't accidentally bump into it with your eyes wide open -- yowch, major irritation!

How many apple juice containers have you recycled in the last year? Well, stop it!! Pull them out of your bin and emulate Sara Ebert's light pendulum cloaked with the sleeve of a thriftstore sweater -- cheap but very chic design!

Ditto for Austen Doten's bottlecap bowl, made quite obviously out of a couple of hundred melted plastic caps -- better here than in the middle of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Sukmo Koo and Young Taek Oh's Metamorphosis light shade was created using undulating egg cartons hand-formed into a grand textural statement. I've seen recycled cardboard egg container ideas before, but nothing quite this elegant.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has piles and piles of magazines collecting dust in every corner of my house. Li-Rong Liao created this Mag Stool which -- while I can't help but question its durability and ability to support the average human being -- is quite pleasing to the eye. At the very least, you could make one of your own to hold decorative trinkets or a collection of Barbie Dolls!

Finally, would you have ever thought of turning your spent giftcards into homemade buttons? Me neither, but Sara Dierck proves that with a little heat and scissor action, they can become a fashion forward accent to any outfit.